Pleasant Valley High School (Iowa)

Pleasant Valley High School
Address
604 Belmont Road Bettendorf , Iowa 52722 United States
Coordinates	41°33′11″N90°28′14″W / 41.55306°N 90.47056°W / 41.55306; -90.47056
Information
Type	Public secondary
Motto	Committed to Excellence
Established	1961
School district	Pleasant Valley
Superintendent	Brian Strusz
Principal	Darren Erickson [1]
Teaching staff	96.70 (on an FTE basis) [2]
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1,679 (2023-2024) [3]
Student to teacher ratio	17.36 [2]
Color(s)	Navy Blue and Gray
Athletics	Mississippi Athletic Conference
Mascot	Spartan
Newspaper	The Spartan Shield
Yearbook	Valenian
Website	Pleasant Valley HS website

Pleasant Valley High School is a public four-year comprehensive high school located in Bettendorf, Iowa, on the border with Riverdale , Iowa. ^{[4] [5] [6]} The school is part of the Pleasant Valley Community School District, and it has an enrollment of approximately 1,541 students in grades 9 through 12. ^[2]

Located approximately one mile west of U.S. Highway 67 and 3 miles south of U.S. Interstate 80, Pleasant Valley High School draws students from several communities in eastern Iowa Scott County, Iowa, including eastern Bettendorf, Riverdale, LeClaire and surrounding rural areas—including Pleasant Valley Township (for which the school district was named). Bettendorf High School is their cross-town rival, located five minutes to the west.

History

The Pleasant Valley Township School District had formed in 1957, and two elementary schools in the tiny school district—Riverview and Pleasant View—were deemed too small to house a high school program. Construction on a $1.36 million junior-senior high school building, on a 40-acre site along Belmont Road at Bettendorf's northeast city limits, began in 1959, and the first day of class was September 12, 1960. The first graduating class was in 1962, with 24 seniors (there was no 1961 graduating class). Richard Klahn was the first principal, and oversaw a teaching staff that was quickly regarded as one of the finest in Iowa. (The first teaching staff had to have master's degrees or were currently working on one.)

"The original Pleasant Valley High School boasted many modern features," a history of the school, published in the 1986 Valenian (the high school yearbook), said of the then state-of-the-art features. "All rooms and corridors were acoustically engineered. Each room had thermostatically controlled heat with an automatically controlled fresh-filtered air supply. Colors (blue, green, gold, olive and chartreuse) were scientifically selected for balanced brightness ration and light reflectance. A two-way public address system in every room provided for paging, announcements, radio and recorded programs. A master time-keeping system automatically corrected all clocks throughout the building. Swanson and Maiwald (the Moline, Illinois-based architectural firm that designed the school) even made provisions in the gym for future additions of permanent and folding bleachers and for an electronically operated folding partiction to divide the gym area into two practice courts. Also included was a roof-top telescope over the library."

In 1966, the Pleasant Valley School district merged with the LeClaire and Cody school districts, meaning high school students from those districts (they had previously gone to Bettendorf) were now attending Pleasant Valley. Junior-senior high school enrollment increased to over 600 (it had been less than half that previously), and a three-phase building program was started, with additions completed in 1967, 1971 and 1974. Junior high students were moved from the high school building to the new Blackhawk Junior High in LeClaire (now Pleasant Valley Junior High) in 1970. During the mid-1970s, a proposal to renovate and move high school students to Blackhawk Junior High and repurpose the high school building as a junior high, failed. In 1984, the high school, along with the district's other four schools, were honored with the "Excellence in Education" award, in recognition of the district's high academic standards and fine teaching staff. ^[7]

Athletics

The Pleasant Valley Spartans participate in the Mississippi Athletic Conference including the following sports: Baseball; boys' and girls' basketball; boys' and girls' bowling; cheerleading; boys' and girls' cross country; football; boys' and girls' golf; platinum dance; softball; boys' and girls' soccer; boys' and girls' swimming; boys' and girls' tennis; boys' and girls' track; and wrestling. ^{[8] [9]}

Successes

• Boys' Cross Country (4-time Class 4A State Champions - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2017) ^[10]
• Girls' Cross Country (4-time State Champions - 1983, 1985, 1994, 2012) ^[11]
• Football - 1985 Class 3A State Champions ^[12]
• Boys' Track and Field - 2008 Class 4A State Champions ^[13]
• Girls' Track and Field (2-time Class 3A State Champions - 1985, 1991) ^[14]
• Wrestling (2-time Class 3A State Duals Champions - 1995, 1997) ^[15]
• Boys' Soccer - (2-time Class 3A State Champions - 2021, 2022) ^{[16] [17]}
• Boys' Baseball - 2021 Class 4A State Champions ^[18]
• Girls' Volleyball (2-time Class 5A State Champions 2021, 2024) ^{[19] [20]}

Alumni

The school's notable alumni include:

• Chris Anthony — former Arena Football League wide receiver/linebacker for the New York Dragons ^[21]
• Christine Romans — CNN reporter and anchor ^[22]
• Elizabeth Hamilton Guarino — author of The Change Guidebook ^[23]

See also

• List of high schools in Iowa

References

1. "Contact & Hours | PV High School".
2. "Pleasant Valley High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
3. "Pleasant Valley High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 20, 2024.
4. Home. Pleasant Valley High School. Retrieved on July 14, 2018. "Location: 604 Belmont Rd Bettendorf, IA 52722" - Listed on the Riverdale municipal site as: "Sr. High School Pleasant Valley High School Belmont Road Riverdale, Iowa 52722"
5. "2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP: Riverdale city, IA." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on July 14, 2018.
6. "Proposed Boundaries 2011-2012 Archived 2018-07-15 at the Wayback Machine ." Pleasant Valley Community School District. Retrieved on July 21, 2018. Pay attention to the "corporate boundaries" line and the placement of "Pleasant Valley High"
7. "Turning the clock back on PV," Valenian, pg. 18-23.
8. staff. "Sports teams". Pleasant Valley High School website. Pleasant Valley community School District. Retrieved 30 August 2013.
9. "Mississippi Athletic Conference". Mississippi Athletic Conference. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
10. "2020 IHSAA Cross Country Stat Book" (PDF). Iowa High School Athletic Association. 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
11. "Pleasant Valley". Iowa High School Sports. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
12. "Record Book Football 2020 Complete Edition" (PDF). Iowa High School Athletic Association. 2020-06-09. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
13. "2020 IHSAA Track & Field Stat Book" (PDF). Iowa High School Athletic Association. 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
14. "2019 IGHSAU Track & Field Record Book" (PDF). Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
15. "2020 Wrestling Stat Book" (PDF). Iowa High School Athletic Association. 2020-01-29. Retrieved 2020-09-20.
16. "2021 Boys Soccer 3A State Bracket | Varsity Bound".
17. "2022 Boys Soccer 3A State Bracket | Varsity Bound".
18. "State Tournament - Iowa High School Baseball | IHSAA".
19. "2021 Class 5A State Volleyball Tournament Statistics & Box Scores". Iowa High School Athletic Association. 2021-10-01. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
20. "Pleasant Valley defeats Waukee Northwest to claim Class 5A Iowa state volleyball title". Des Moines Register. 2024-11-07. Retrieved 2024-11-09.
21. "Chris Anthony - Pleasant Valley High School". 18 October 2012.
22. Carnahan, Whitney (April 15, 2002). "Pleasant Valley grad makes grade at CNN". The Dispatch. Illinois, Moline. p. 19. Retrieved 18 August 2019– via Newspapers.com.
23. "The Spark of Change Begins Within – Elizabeth Hamilton-Guarino". Deadline News.

External links

• Pleasant Valley HS website
• Pleasant Valley Community School District website